Today was the first race of the year for me. Just a short 2 miler to get me focused and ready for spring. Last week I thought I was going to really push hard, but I decided yesterday to just run a solid pace for me and go with it. It snowed and iced like crazy yesterday am, but by the time today rolled around it was cleared off nicely so conditions were clear and about 30 so it felt fine. I also have that nagging groin muscle that keeps coming back to bother me. Not much of a race report to write up today, I was excited to race, but I figured out that I did not have much today. At least I thought. Mile 1 was pretty easy as I was testing my legs and they seemed fine, but I felt awfully slow. I do not know why, but I felt like I could not find my 'faster' gear. I did not even check my Garmin at mile 1 which was a mistake (explain later). There was a decent size group ahead of me which was a little discouraging because last years race results would have led me to believe I could hang in that top 5 area, so they were not elite. This year they were more than I knew. A few finished in under 10 minutes. So since I felt like I was slower than expected I let up just a tad to make it a nice race, but not all out. Why this made sense, I am not sure. I know I did not want to pull something on the first race so maybe that was the mentality. I finished strong and was not depleted so that was good as I crossed at 12:44. So afterwards I checked my Garmin. Mile 1 was 6:04. I would have bet I was running 6:30 at best. If I had looked I know I am pretty stubborn and would have pushed awfully hard to hit anywhere in the 11's. What does this mean? Nothing I guess except I need to learn my pace by feel better, but honestly that is new territory for me (when going fast for me). So Mile 1 6:04, Mile 2 6:40 PM- slow run, legs not very responsive, but did not expect them to be. Maybe warm tomorrow! | 